| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: take the key of the apartment and give it to the police."
The detective had no particular fondness for the task of sewing,
and he was glad to accept the valet's friendly offering. He was
rather astonished at the evident costliness of the garment the
young man handed him, and when he spoke of it, the valet could
not say enough in praise of the kindness of his late master. He
pulled out several other articles of clothing, which, like the
overcoat, had been given to him by Fellner. Then he packed up
a few necessities and announced himself as ready to start. He
insisted on carrying the torn coat, and Muller permitted it after
some protest. They carefully closed the apartment and the house,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne: When the engineer stood still, Harry Ford stopped also.
The young miner waited in silence. He felt what was passing
in his companion's mind, and he shared his feelings; he, a child
of the mine, whose whole life had been passed in its depths.
"Yes, Harry, it is all changed," said Starr. "But at the rate we worked,
of course the treasures of coal would have been exhausted some day.
Do you regret that time?"
"I do regret it, Mr. Starr," answered Harry. "The work was hard,
but it was interesting, as are all struggles."
"No doubt, my lad. A continuous struggle against the dangers
of landslips, fires, inundations, explosions of firedamp, like claps
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from God The Invisible King by H. G. Wells: idea of God grows clear. The effort to understand completely, for
example, leads to the endless Heresies of Theory. Men trip over the
inherent infirmities of the human mind. But in these days one does
not argue greatly about dogma. Almost every conceivable error about
unity, about personality, about time and quantity and genus and
species, about begetting and beginning and limitation and similarity
and every kink in the difficult mind of man, has been thrust forward
in some form of dogma. Beside the errors of thought are the errors
of emotion. Fear and feebleness go straight to the Heresies that
God is Magic or that God is Providence; restless egotism at leisure
and unchallenged by urgent elementary realities breeds the Heresies
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare: Who being accus'd a crafty murtherer,
His guilt should be but idly posted over,
Because his purpose is not executed.
No; let him die, in that he is a fox,
By nature prov'd an enemy to the flock,
Before his chaps be stain'd with crimson blood,
As Humphrey, prov'd by reasons, to my liege.
And do not stand on quillets how to slay him.
Be it by gins, by snares, by subtlety,
Sleeping or waking, 't is no matter how,
So he be dead; for that is good deceit
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